Experience Summary
Similar to the student described above I also hold a BS in Biology and have extensive experience in writing research papers and laboratory reports including my departmentally honored senior thesis I wrote while studying abroad in the Costa Rican rain forest. My strengths in tutoring, however, are focused in mathematics and science. During my freshman and sophomore years of college I held a work study position tutoring incoming students behind in their math requirements. I tutored one to two students at a time in subjects such as pre-calculus and statistics, and for each student succeeded in building rapport and helping them to meet their requirement. I am most confident that I would be able to carry this success to tutoring high school sciences. I have a completed 87 credit hours of chemistry oriented classes with an additional 20 credit hours of additional math classes. Both these subject come very naturally to me, and I feel very much at ease in teaching others within these subjects.
Teaching Style
My first duty as a tutor is to build a rapport with my students by showing them that I take my tutoring responsibilities very seriously, and letting them know that I expect the same from them during our time together. My teaching style is very classical in the sense that I prefer to ask the student questions about their work in the hopes that they will find their own answer. When a student is stumped on a problem I ask questions that I hope will help them to see the problem from a different perspective. This style requires more effort than simply pointing out mistakes and asking the student to correct them, but I believe helps the student to understand the problem more thoroughly setting them up for success come test time (I'm definitely not looking to just get their homework done without the student really learning anything about the work they had done). Although my goal is for students to come up with answers independently, it is not my intention to frustrate students with a series of riddle-like questions. I've come across many students who try to make things too complicated for themselves whom I've been able to show the simplicities and consistencies that they had been missing. I'm also a fan of using mnemonic devices in learning and studying.